Touching Rune (6 page)

Rune shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. “I’ll have to see what happens.”

“How do you…” Micha’s voice died as Rune stepped close enough to press her fingers against his lips.

“I don’t,” she answered with a sad smile. “Whatever is going to happen will find me. It always does. Do not worry about me, Micha. I will be fine.” She stood on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss across his whiskered cheek.

Micha watched as the mysterious young woman/child turned and quietly stepped out of his tiny office. He watched her until she turned the corner and exited the atrium. His eyes moved back to the Christmas rose that had not been there before her appearance. A slight, worried frown darkened his withered face as he saw a petal fall slowly to the ground. Something told him that whatever was about to happened had to do with not only the beautiful unusua
l woman but with the two men who had taken him off the streets years ago and healed his tattered soul with their acceptance of an old man’s mistake.

“Good luck,
миледи
,” Micha whispered. “Good luck, little lost angel.”

Dimitri walked through th
e darkened corridor, heading for the stairs that led back down to his apartments. He and Sergei had spent the last several hours drinking fine brandy. They had discussed their latest project and the issue in Los Angeles. Both of them had avoided the topic of the statue, the effect it had on them and their impulsive wish.

He could feel the warmth of the superb brandy coursing through his blood as he headed down the stairs. Even though he had consumed more than his normal limit, he was far from being drunk. Life had shown him how dangerous it was to allow liquor to cloud his mind enough that it impaired his thoughts.

He stepped lightly, not making any sound out of habit. He was familiar enough with the route that he didn’t need any additional lighting. There was just enough light coming from the carefully place emergency lighting that had been installed during the renovations to this part of the palace to guide him safely down to the lower level.

He was at the curve in the staircase when a shadow passed by the foot of the stairs. He paused, his body immediately triggered into the offensive by the unfamiliar form. He couldn’t make out the features but the only ones allowed in this part of the palace were Micha, their groundskeeper, and a select number of servants, all of which should be off for the evening.

The shape was covered in a long black coat and was wearing a dark hat that hid his hair. Dimitri frowned when he heard the echo of boots against the marble floor. His eyebrows rose in contempt. Whoever it was, it was obvious they were not very good at stealth. His lip curled into a cruel smile. Whoever thought to enter the lion’s den was about to discover they had made a lethal mistake.

Dimitri stepped down several steps on silent feet, pausing when the figure stopped and turned in a slow circle. The unmistakable whispered curse was in English proving the person was not one of their servants or a hired guard. Dimitri couldn’t understand the words as they were muffled by the scarf hiding half of the intruder’s face but the language was unmistakable.

“Dimitri,” a voice behind him called out.

Dimitri turned with a curse of his own as Sergei came down the stairs behind him. “Intruder!” Dimitri growled out in Russian before he turned and rushed down the stairs.

The figure at the bottom of the stairs jerked around, staring up at them with shadowed eyes before twirling around to race back the way he had come. The loud stomp of his boots echoed as he ran clumsily down the corridor. Muffled curses followed when he stumbled on a step.

“Damn it all to hell,” the muffled voice cursed. “Sorry ass sons-of-bitches. Why couldn’t he have at least put some shoes on me?”

*.*.*

Dimitri jumped down the last few steps. He had called out a terse warning for Sergei to stay back but he should have known he wouldn’t. He knew Sergei held a seventh degree black belt in judo but Dimitri didn’t care, it was his job to protect his friend and surrogate brother.

Until the kidnapping attempt, he never thought Sergei had the inner discipline to kill someone if he had to. He knew now that Sergei was not only capable, but highly skilled in how to kill. That didn’t mean he wanted his friend anywhere near danger if he could help it. In his mind, he still saw the scared boy he had found in the alley behind a rundown hotel.

Dimitri slowed and held his hand up to Sergei when the figure paused for a moment at the end of the corridor. He watched as the shadow bent over before quickly straightening. He cursed when he saw the figure turn and glare back at them before tossing something toward them.

“Cover!” Dimitri yelled, pushing Sergei behind him and covering his body with his broader frame.

“Will you get off me?” Sergei growled impatiently.

Dimitri glanced down at the object behind him. A furious oath ripped from him when he saw one of the intruder’s boots behind him. He stepped back, turning to look back where the man had been. The space was empty now.

“Why would he throw his boot at us?” Sergei asked, puzzled.

“Stay here,” Dimitri growled.

Sergei grabbed Dimitri’s arm as he turned to head down the hallway. “No. We capture him together. I want to know who he is, who he works for and what he wants,” he bit out. “Then, we kill him.”

“You are sure,” Dimitri asked. “I can do this alone.”

“Not anymore,” Sergei said touching the scar that ran under his eye. “This corridor leads to the laundry room. You go through the servants’ entrance, I’ll go through the kitchen. Oh, and try not to kill him before we get the information we want,” Sergei added with a cold smile before he turned away.

“Since when did you become so tough?” Dimitri grumbled out under his breath.

Sergei’s husky chuckle echoed in the darkness before fading. Dimitri waited a fraction of a second before he moved carefully down the corridor. He drew out the floor plan in his mind. He moved slowly, methodically down the narrow passage making sure the intruder had not left behind any explosive devices that might be triggered by those coming up behind him.

He stepped down the single step where the floor was lower. In the center of the corridor was the second boot. He knelt, carefully turning it over. Raising it up, he looked at it. It looked like a men’s size twelve. It was old, scuffed and had  dried mud on the side. He frowned and stood up.

Why would the intruder remove his boots? He could see removing them so he was quieter but to leave them behind was suicidal! He would be trapped in the house as he would freeze to death before he got halfway to the perimeter. Another frown darkened Dimitri’s face.

“How in the hell did he get into the house undetected?” Dimitri muttered. “He would have had to scale the perimeter fence which has infrared sensors and motion detection, not to mention an advance heat-signature video detection system then make his way over a quarter mile though snow and ice past the guards and more cameras before reaching the house which is secured at every possible entrance.”

Fury burned though Dimitri. He would break every bone in the bastard’s body until the man told him how he had gained entry not only onto the property but into the house. If he found that someone was helping him on the inside, he would make them regret ever having been born.

Stepping up to the door leading into the huge laundry room, he pushed the door quietly open. The shadow of the man stood outlined against the narrow window that he was struggling to open. Satisfaction coursed through him when he saw Sergei’s dark form step into the room on the other side. Their wayward intruder was too busy trying to pry the window open to realize he had company.

Dimitri nodded to Sergei and they both silently stepped forward. It was time to make the bastard talk. He hoped that the man would not confess to who he was working for too quickly. He was looking forward to having a little fun first.

*.*.*

Rune wanted to bang her head against the window in frustration but she figured the only thing that would do is give her a bigger headache than the one that was building. She had gotten lost in the maze of corridors as she tried to find an exit. She had gone through one door only to find herself in another long hallway. After almost two hours of wandering in the dark she was ready to start screaming.

She thought she might have actually been on the right track when she stumbled through the last doorway and saw light at the end of the corridor. She headed for the tall windows at the end of the long passage only to realize as she got closer that they were solid. She had turned to go back when the man from the auction called out to someone. She had swiveled around to find the other man from the atrium staring down at her with cold, merciless eyes. She knew what death looked like and the man staring at her had it in his eyes.

“Stupid, sorry ass window! Open, damn it,” Rune muttered as she adjusted her position on the large washing machine.

“It is sealed,” a deep voice commented behind her.

Rune turned so quickly she almost fell off her perch. She did fall onto her ass. Seeing both men staring coldly at her sent her backing up as far as she could until her back was pressed against the cold window. She hit it with her elbow, hoping it would magically pop open so she could just tumble out of it backwards.

Hell, snow is soft,
she thought desperately as they both took a step closer.
I’d even settle for mud.

“Get down,” the leaner of the two men demanded.

Rune shook her head back and forth and gripped the back of the cold metal device she was sitting on. They would have to pry her off it first. She was not going anywhere near either of the men. She hadn’t realized in her other form just how damn big they both were.

“It looks like I’ll get to have some fun,” the broader of the two remarked to the other man. “I was wanting to break some bones. I think I’ll start with his feet. You know there are twenty-six bones in the human foot? I know how to break each one of them, one… at… a… time,” he added slowly.

Rune’s eyes widened and she quickly pulled her feet as close to her body as possible. She wondered if there really were twenty-six bones. Personally, she didn’t want him to start counting them. She bit her lip and flashed her eyes to the other man. If she thought he might be the easier of the two, she was mistaken.

“At least he won’t be able to run away again when we start breaking the other bones in his body,” the leaner man said as he cracked his knuckles.

Rune swallowed and drew in a shaky breath. Okay, going out the window wasn’t going to work. Her eyes darted to the door behind the men. If she could make it to the door, she could possibly find her way back to the atrium and beg for Micha’s help after all. Pulling her feet up under her, she loosened her hands from the back of the metal machine and drew in one final breath.

They won’t expect me to attack,
she thought
. I just need to throw them off guard long enough to disappear again.

Refusing to think what would happen if she wasn’t successful, Rune tensed as both men took a step closer. It was now or never, she thought, as she launched herself off the huge metal machine. She hit the broader man in the chest.

She realized immediately that she would have had a better chance of escaping through a brick wall. What little breath she had disappeared as she hit him. Instead of knocking him backwards into the other man, he wrapped his huge arms around her and squeezed until she was sure he was going to break her in half. Scared, she did the only thing she could think of doing – she threw her head forward and hit him in the nose.

“
сукин сын!”
Son of a bitch!

Rune melted in his arms when they loosened. She didn’t understand what he said but from the viciousness in his tone, she imagined it was one of her favorite phrases when she was mad or frustrated. She dropped to her knees and st
arted to crawl through his legs as the other man reached for her. Rolling, she brought her sock covered foot up and kicked at him. He grabbed her foot but she was able to slip free when the oversized socks slid from her foot as he pulled on it.

Looking up, she kicked the other man in the groin as he turned. He stumbled backwards with an even louder curse into the metal machine she had been sitting on just moments before. His hands gripped the front of his crotch as he bent slightly and drew in a ragged breath.

Rune didn’t wait. She rolled onto her hands and knees and tried to scramble to her feet. The long coat twisted around her making it difficult but she was finally able to stand. She had barely taken half a step when another set of strong arms wrapped around her. She tried to head butt him as well but he had obviously learned from his friend to beware of her head. She struggled to undo the two buttons holding on the coat. She shrugged free of it just as the man she had kicked in the balls stepped forward with a low, threatening growl.

Terrified, Rune went limp again leaving the man holding nothing but Micha’s old coat. She stumbled as she fell free before bolting for the door leading to the corridor. She thought for sure she would finally make it when she grabbed the door handle and started to pull it opened. She wasn’t prepared for the two hard bodies that flew into hers or being spun around so fast her head swum. Before she knew what was happening, she found herself pinned between two hot, furious male bodies.